Eva Kaili risks spending Christmas in prison. The Brussels Council Chamber, before which the former Vice-President of the European Parliament appeared eleven days after she began her detention, rejected the application for placement under an electronic bracelet and “extended the preventive detention by one month”. The Greek MEP’s lawyers have 24 hours to appeal the decision.
In the scandal that sent a shockwave through the European Parliament and tensions between Qatar and the EU, Eva Kaili is among a quartet of suspects jailed on charges of “affiliation with a criminal organization”, “money laundering” and “money laundering”. . and “corruption”.
A decision had already been taken on December 14 to keep in prison Francesco Giorgi, companion of the Socialist MEP, and former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, who also appear as key figures in the file.
Twenty searches, transfer of 1.5 million euros in cash
Bags containing banknotes worth 150,000 euros were discovered in his Brussels apartment, according to a Belgian judicial source. But the MEP “did not know of the existence of this money,” her Greek lawyer said, according to which Francesco Giorgi “betrayed the trust” of his companion.
In Greece, the couple’s joint bank account and 7,000 square meters of land were confiscated by courts. In Belgium, the investigation led by Finance Judge Michel Claise led to 20 searches between December 9 and 12, including at the European Parliament’s premises in Brussels. The investigators stole a total of 1.5 million euros in cash.
Eva Kaili, a former TV news presenter who has become a controversial figure in the Greek Socialist Party (which excluded her from the initial revelations), continues to deny receiving money from Qatar to influence her political decisions.